


Too Many Alternates

by Prince_Pondincherry



Category: Parahumans Series - Wildbow
Genre: (sort of), Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Fanfiction of Fanfiction, Gen, Multiple Crossovers, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-21
Updated: 2018-09-27
Packaged: 2019-07-14 23:55:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,381
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16051202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Prince_Pondincherry/pseuds/Prince_Pondincherry
Summary: A twist on the Peggy Sue trope. What if more than one person came back? And how will they react to the others when they're from different pasts? Inspired by Far Too Many Time Travelers, a Harry Potter fanfic (although I'm shooting more for drama than comedy) and by some comments in the Atonement thread on Spacebattles.





	1. 1-1: Madison Clements

I was in Mr. G.’s old classroom at Winslow. What? But Winslow was destroyed! I was also smaller. What the hell had happened? Had I been hit by some sort of Stranger illusion? But no, what would be the point? This seemed real to me, if very odd. And even if I had, I’d have to trust my teammates back in the real world to get me out. Either way, it would probably be best to treat this like the real world and just keep my eyes out for anything weird.

I glanced around the room and found it. “Taylor,” I breathed out. I started to tear up. Taylor was dead. We killed her, and now someone was obviously tormenting me by showing her alive. I wasn’t sure what to do. I....I didn’t want to deal with this. But if Taylor was alive in this dream world, I’d have to make it up to her somehow. But how?

Then a horrible, but sort of wonderful at the same time, thought occurred to me. If Taylor was alive and Winslow wasn’t destroyed, did this mean we were in the past? Were Emma, Sophia, and I still…bullying her? Well, not anymore. Even if I had to make myself the target for Emma and Sophia again, I wasn’t going to let the bullying continue, and I was absolutely going to prevent Taylor’s death this time.

My musings were interrupted by the bell ringing. I watched as Taylor marched determinedly out of the classroom, then snapped out of a slight trance to pack up and rush out into the hallways after her. I needed to catch up to her and apologize and make sure the others backed off. I rushed out, nearly tripping as I got used to my smaller legs—another point of evidence in favor of the time travel theory—and looked back and forth in the hallway, but I couldn’t see where she had gone. I resolved to search the halls until I found her. Taylor’s death and bullying had been the biggest mistakes in my life, and if this was really an opportunity to fix them, I was going to do everything in my power to do so.

But where would she be? Taylor never ate in the cafeteria anymore, it was too easy for us to find her. Another pang of remorse filled my chest, and I had to remind myself what I had told Riley—I wasn’t that person anymore, I was doing good now, and I’d never be that person again if I didn’t want to be. And I _didn’t_ want to be. I was a hero now.

I couldn’t find Taylor for a long time; she wasn’t anywhere we’d found her in the halls before, which made some sense, but I wasn’t sure where she could be. Eventually I decided to check the bathrooms, feeling even _worse_ about it. Who bullies someone so hard that they have to eat lunch on the toilet to escape? Oh right, _me_. In the second bathroom I checked, the lights were off for some reason. I flicked the light switch on and saw there was one stall with the door locked. Feeling vaguely creepy, I glanced at the gap at the bottom of the stall door and couldn’t see feet. So she probably was hiding in there. I knocked on the door, but there was no response. I knocked a little more insistently, tentatively asking, “Is anybody in there?”

“It’s occupied,” was the response. I recognized the timid, squeaky voice immediately.

“Emma? What are you doing in there? It’s me, Madison.”

“I don’t…leave me alone, I don’t want to talk about it.”

I had a sudden flash of inspiration. “Emma, is something weird going on? Are you…” I almost asked ‘Are you wondering how you got here,’ but if she wasn’t, I didn’t want to look weird. Instead, I looked around to make sure nobody else was in earshot, then asked, “Oversight?”

“What? What’s Oversight?” Oh, I guess not. I had thought for a moment she might be from my time as well. “But Madison, this probably sounds crazy, but I think I travelled back in time.” Oh, I guess I was right. But if she didn’t answer to the name Oversight, what would that mean? Maybe she was from earlier than me, before she got her new name? “I knew you were going to think I was crazy. Just don’t tell anyone, please,” Emma continued, sounding panicked.

“No, wait, I don’t think you’re crazy! Me too!”

A pause. “What?”

“Me too! I’m pretty sure I also travelled back in time. We just…well, we just killed Jack Slash. When did you come from? I think it was probably earlier.”

“What?” Emma sounded shocked. She opened the stall door and I could see her surprised face, as well as two small shadow monsters. I almost yelped and ran away, but she was petting them, so they were hopefully harmless. “What do you mean, you killed Jack Slash?!” Yeah, something weird was going on here. Even if we were both time travelers, I was pretty sure we weren’t from the same timeline.


	2. 1-2: Emma Barnes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Emma and Madison have a heart-to-heart in the bathroom.

“What?” I opened the stall door, needing to make sure I was actually talking to sweet, cute little Madison Clements. “What do you mean, you killed Jack Slash?!”

“Well, Emma…you can’t tell anyone, but when I came from, I was a Ward. Tether. You might have heard of me.”

“No, never heard of you.” Then I remembered why the stall door had been closed. The two shadow creatures I’d been petting to help deal with my near-breakdown in the dining hall. Oh, shit. I made the shadows go away and then said, slightly panicked, “Please don’t tell anyone I’m a cape either.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t,” Madison said. “There are unwritten rules among capes. You don’t just unmask somebody, that’s not okay. And even if it was, you’re my friend, I wouldn’t do that to you.”

I breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you.”

“So, when I’m from, you’re still a cape, but you don’t control shadow creatures, as far as I know. Instead, you control electronic devices for a few blocks around you.”

“I…sorry, I don’t know what happened to you after Taylor got outed as Skitter in Arcadia. My family moved to Detroit and we sort of fell out of touch.”

“Taylor was outed as who? She…she was a cape in your timeline?”

“Yeah, a …. villain named Skitter. And then she, well, she killed Alexandria, and now she’s a hero in the Wards. Well, not now, now, but…”

“I know what you mean. That’s so…” Madison paused.

“What did Taylor do in your timeline? Did you not find out she was Skitter?”

Madison suddenly looked really guilty and sad. “Emma…in my timeline, Taylor died in the locker. Did…did we still do that in yours?”

“Yeah, but she lived. I think…I think that might have been when she triggered.”

“Oh, no.” No Madison did start crying and I joined her. She stepped forward and pulled my head onto her shoulder, and we stood there crying on each other’s shoulders until the warning bell rang.

“Emma…I guess I don’t know anything about you, but…I can tell you’re not comfortable around people, are you? And I’m guessing bright lights, either?”

“Y…yeah, light’s bothered me since I…since I got my powers, and I don’t go out much during the day.”

“Emma, listen to me. You are my friend, I’ll always be here for you, okay? If I remember correctly, we have the next class together. I’ll sit right next to you, and I’ll make sure to keep everyone’s attention off you, okay. We can make it through this, alright?”

I gulped, wiped the tear tracks off my face, and stood up. “Alright. I think I can do this.” We walked out of the bathroom and into the hallway, and as we headed to our next class, Madison’s hand found mine and gave it a quick squeeze. _I don’t know what’s going on, but I’ve got my friend back now, so I’m sure it will work out. I just have to get through the rest of the school day._

 


End file.
